Green eyes,
green like olive oil,
green like the green olive
and the olive-green of the greenfinch…

These lyrics may not sound familiar to you, but let me explain.

This morning I woke up with olive green running through my veins and couldn’t resist adapting the chorus of the famous copla (Andalusian ballad) to fit my own olive and cultivated world.

Both my parents had green eyes, and the first kohl eyeliner I ever used was olive green, which belonged to my mother. Funny how I can’t forget that little pencil…

Returning to our habitat, have you ever seen a greenfinch? It’s a bird often spotted among the olive trees, more so in organic groves where it feels safe enough to nest. Its scientific name is Chloris chloris (literally “green, green”). Its plumage is olive green with flashes of bright yellow, and in an organic olive grove it can find everything it needs to survive: dense branches for nesting and plenty of seeds from the plants that grow naturally around the trees — the same plants others destroy by using herbicides.

The richness and vitality of an organic olive grove make all the difference.

Another image that remains fixed in my memory comes from the edges of our groves, and was pointed out to me by a Belgian friend. If you look on the other side of our trees, you will see land that is “clean,” yet barren and lifeless. On our side, it’s green and alive, bursting with vitality…

Michel often told me, “a picture is worth a thousand words: you have to share this online so people can understand.”

We leave a wide safety margin along the edges, and the olives we harvest there are kept separate from the rest and tested, just in case of any cross-contamination.

Well, now you know just how much life our juices and extra virgin olive oils contain, how many little birds are born in our olive trees, and how the greenfinches flit about singing chip-chip.

Cultivated regards,

Elena Vecino (fundadora de La Cultivada). Read all my CULTIVATED STORIES.